Tim Tebow, Mormon singles target chastity and abstinence in New York City

Playing quarterback for the New York Jets means Tim Tebow is subject to scrutiny from the fourth estate in the nation’s biggest media market. And there’s just no getting around the New York media’s fascination with the Christian lifestyle of Tebow, an unmarried 25-year-old who is committed to living a chaste lifestyle prior to marriage.

Indeed, as Tebow prepares to embark on his first season in the Big Apple (he quarterbacked the Denver Broncos to a division title last year), the New York Times seized on the occasion to gauge the city’s dating scene for single Christians in the article “Living the Abstinent New York Lifestyle.”

“Welcome to New York, Tim Tebow,” Bob Tedeschi wrote in Wednesday’s New York Times. “Now that the Jets have broken training camp and Tebow, a famous chaste Christian, becomes a full-time New Yorker, it has become a common, and mildly amusing, pastime to fret about the temptations he might face or the potential loneliness he might suffer. (But) the stories of other abstinent singles in New York suggest that he will have plenty of company, and prospective dates. Still, the city is a far cry from Provo, Utah.”

Although Tedeschi provided no context whatsoever for referencing Provo, the journalist quoted a member of the LDS Church (“ ‘If you make it to New York and you’re a virgin, you’ve still got a high percentage chance of maintaining the V-card,’ said Conor Dwyer, 29, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who married in June after meeting his future wife in Manhattan”) and subsequently contrasted the respective New York dating scenes for evangelical Christians and Mormons.

“New York’s Mormons seem to have a slightly easier time finding dates and like-minded friends (than other Christians),” Tedeschi reported. “Unmarried Mormons gather and worship in singles-only wards, which are also hubs of weeknight church activities and conduits for non-church gatherings.”

"The most important call of Tim Tebow's day comes far away from the huddle," Dennis Waszak Jr. reported for AP. "It's usually sometime at night, when one of his closest friends — an 'accountability partner,' as he describes him — (calls) to keep his priorities in order. 'He's someone I pray with,' Tebow said in a recent sit-down with the Associated Press, preferring to keep his friend's identity private."

J.G. Askar is a graduate of BYU's J. Reuben Clark Law School and member of the Utah State Bar. Contact him at jaskar@desnews.com or 801-236-6051.